Investigators said the
fire had not been set deliberately and they have not found any of the
people who lived there. The camp — one of scores of makeshift
communities that have grown along freeways, rivers and open space across
Los Angeles — was largely destroyed in the fire, leaving authorities
with little evidence.

News that one of Los Angeles’ most affluent
neighborhoods was damaged in a fire sparked by some of the city’s
poorest residents added a sober note to the incident, with some
officials saying it underscores the need to do more to house the
homeless.This “makes a tragic event even more tragic,” said Los Angeles
Councilman Paul Koretz, whose district includes Bel-Air. “The saddest
thing is that we have so many homeless people. And they are everywhere
in the city. And that sometimes causes serious problems.”

A new
task force for fire prevention will tackle some of those questions,
officials said. The panel will consider mandatory evacuations of
hillside and brush area encampments during days or seasons of high fire
risk, and education campaigns to discourage outdoor fires when winds
pick up.

“But given the topography of… all the hills in our city,
we could do that 24 hours a day and still miss a lot of people,” Los
Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
said. “Just like ramping up efforts to try to anticipate terrorist
incidents, you can never get to zero risk. And I think it would be a
mistake to think we could.”

“We knew it was only going to be a matter of time before something horrible happened,” Miner said.

Miner
said she was skeptical of the proposed campaign to educate homeless
people about fire risks.Los Angeles needs a massive regulatory overhaul
like the one that followed the 1961 Bel-Air fire, she said, which
should include eliminating hillside encampments.

Humans are usually the cause of fires in Southern California,
including sparks from car crashes, farm equipment, cigarette butts or
camping fires, officials said.

Debate about camps and the fire
danger come as Los Angeles is struggling with a rise in the homeless
population. An annual count in May found that the homeless population of
Los Angeles County had soared 23%
to nearly 58,000 people in the last year. The homeless population in
the West L.A. service area — including Bel-Air and Brentwood — rose 18%
from 4,659 to 5,511 in the same time period, the count found.

Photos
taken of the Sepulveda encampment in September and shared with The
Times showed a cluster of green and olive tarpaulins stretched across a
canyon and camouflaged by treetops and brush....

Fire
investigators found evidence that people had been cooking and sleeping
there, but did not find anyone to interview, Los Angeles Fire Department
spokesman Peter Sanders said. The department has no suspects. The size
of the encampment before the fire was unclear, because the area was so
badly burned.

The Skirball
fire erupted early last Wednesday, scorching chaparral-covered hillsides
east of the 405. The blaze closed the highway during morning rush hour
and forced the evacuations of a large swath of Bel-Air, one of the most
affluent neighborhoods in the country.

The Skirball fire was 85% contained Tuesday, with 69 firefighters still working to mop up the operation, officials said.

A
few miles west of Bel Air, residents of Pacific Palisades have been
looking at ways to reduce the risk of fire in homeless camps.

A
community group there, the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness,
persuaded the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to post signs
declaring a high fire severity zone along a bluff where homeless people
congregated.

The sign allowed authorities to cite and clear
homeless people from the area, said Maryam Zar, a member of the group’s
board of directors.

"The city as a rule does not sign on to the
idea that homelessness is a criminal problem," Zar said. "Our whole
strategy is a bundle of different solutions, and for us, it’s working.”"